Extra Credit Assignment

A few weeks ago when I entered the classroom, two women were standing in the front of the class and introduced the discussion about the importance acknowledging bullying. They made each of us put on name tags and make a circle out of the chairs. From that point, we had to stand up, say what our names were and then we had to answer a question about ourselves. The question was: If you really knew me, you would know______. My answer was that if you really knew me, you’d know that I actually like animals more than I like people. When we went around the circle, I was really surprised to hear everyone’s different answers. It was cool because I found out I had a lot more in common with my classmates than I had originally thought. After the introduction, we were asked what we considered bullying to be. On the board we listed a few things we considered bullying. A few examples were cyber bullying, verbal bullying, non-verbal bullying, sexual harassment, physical bullying, racial bullying, emotional bullying, and even something I never considered bullying until that day, ignoring people. I ignore people more often than I should, to either put off a situation or to not cause conflict, so this exercise really opened up my eyes. On the floor was two pieces of red duct tape the girls layed out earlier. They asked us to pick a side and stand on it. They asked us a series of questions and if that question pretayned to you, you would step on the line. This exercise also showed me how much I had in common with these people I really don’t know too well. We had a lot of common bullying situations which was nice to see that someone else knows what I had once gone through. They asked us questions like: Have you ever done something illegal? Has someone ever judged you because of what you wear? Have you ever bullied someone? Have you yourself ever been bullied? Have you ever felt like you don’t fit it? These few just a few of the many questions we were asked in this moving exercise. My favorite part of this exercise was when Emily passed out a piece of paper with each of our names written on it. With this paper, each student in the class wrote a nice thing about each person. The papers went around until you ended up back with your original paper. I had comments like: I love your sense of originality. You’re beautiful. You have an awesome smile. It’s simple, kind gestures like these that made me realize how awesome of a class we had. I didn’t find it hard to find something nice about each person in our class which made the exercise much more enjoyable. The purpose of this was to make each individual feel good about themselves, and make everyone realize that we all have a lot more in common than we once thought. I never really realized how good compliments felt before this part of the exercise. The presentation was phenomenal and the two women did an awesome job spreading the message of treating others the way you would like to be treated.  

To the Future!

It's year 2041 and my Jerry Garcia robot decided to wake me up a little late today. I hopped onto my magic carpet and headed right to the bathroom to take a shower in my underground yellow submarine styled shower room. In holographic form John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr rock out in my bathroom as I get ready for the day. After I finish getting ready I sit back down on my magic carpet and take it back to the room for a quick change. Jerry hands me a sweet new tie-dye shirt he made me a few days ago and my new poncho. I look in my mirror and by memory Jerry knows how to put my makeup on just right. There’s also no dress code in 2041 which is awesome. I get back on the carpet and take it downstairs for some food when I realized I forgot to turn off the holographic version Robert Plant downstairs. Turns out and was playing Dazed and Confused for a good nine hours. I take a look at the menu for the day and of course it has all my favorites: Deep fried brownie bites, chicken tenders, and Half Baked Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Hey, just because it’s the future doesn’t mean the food has to change. I say bye to Robert and Jerry and hop in my plane to take it to class. I realize I’m running super low on fuel and need to fill up real soon. At the fuel Station I run into a few friends and do some stuff and things before class. While I drive to school I’m jamming and right when I look down at my radio I ran a red light. Just my luck, I got pulled over but since the Cops are robots they’re real easy to talk your way out of stuff. I manage to escape that crappy situation and making it to class late as always. School consists of me studying in the thinking-pods all day nothing too special. Finally class gets out and I’m ready to get back home to Jerry, Robert, George, Ringo, Paul, and John. My awesome plane takes me home and within 2 minutes of class getting out I’m sitting on the couch watching TV with the most awesome group of people. The future couldn’t get any better!

Fast Food Advertisements

This ad sways the reader to believe that Subway is so healthy you can actually lose weight from simply eating it, but in reality Subway advertisements tend to abuse to popular Jared Fogle story to appeal to the readers emotions. The Subway diet is in fact not good for your body, and some sandwiches on the menu despite Subway's claims of freshness, are extremely unhealthy.  In the ad readers see a delicious-looking sandwich in the background that is stuffed with chicken and fresh vegetables. The ad makes the sandwich look good and surrounds it with slogans that promote weight loss and freshness, but in reality a lot of sandwiches on the Subway menu are incredibly unhealthy.  The meatball marinara, a  popular Subway sandwich, has an jaw-dropping 1,160 calories and 46 grams of fat. That's worse than the McDonald’s Big Mac which only has 590 calories and 34 grams of fat. These statistics are really important to know when trying to be swayed by fast food scams. This advertisement claims that Subway and Jared have started a weight loss revolution, but how could this be possible with menu items loaded with fat and calories? The ad definitely doesn't tell the whole truth and readers should definitely know that all Subway sandwiches are not as healthy as they are made out to be. Sometimes they find it necessary to leave certain things out of their ads in order to shed a better light on their place of business. Not to say that they are actually false advertising , just that perhaps they may have overlooked the entire truth. Things that were never mentioned in this advertising about Jared losing all of his weight, was the fact that Jared would actually skip breakfast, eat a small Turkey subway sandwich for lunch, and a large vegetable delight subway for dinner along with some baked potato chips and a diet soda according to an interview Jared had once done with Richard Schlesinger.

The Ecological Footprint

Before taking this quiz, I really didn't think that I used up too much energy and was really risking the environment. I found out if everyone on Earth lived he way I do, it would take 7.8 Earth's to provide enough resources. I also learned that to support my way of life, it takes 34.6 global acres of the earth's land, most of it being in energy land.The ecological footprint is the measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems.  It represents the amount of  land and sea area necessary to supply the resources our population consumes and dealing with waste. The ecological footprint is an amazing way to really show you what damage your doing to the environment and can help you really pin-point the area you need to work on to make sure our planet can still maintain it's beauty. It was no surprise to me that I use up most of the resources I'm abusing are due to me eating packaged and processed foods more so than I eat healthier foods and I need to eat a lot less meat. But even more so in traveling; back home I would fill up my tank at least twice a week and I fly a lot which is also not great for the environment. From now on I'm pledging to eat healthier foods, and cut down on the amount of packaged food I eat.

About Me

Hello, my names Morgan Reed and i have just recently moved back to Florida. I was born in West Palm Beach where we lived on my dad's boat for the first year of my life. After that we moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but only lived there for about a year. I've most recently been living in Katy, Texas; a small town right outside of Houston. I'm the only child, but my friends back home will always be like family to me, especially my two brothers. I absolutely love animals. Back home I have six dogs; Lucy, Frank, Trixie, Jaxx, Ella, and George. Three of my dogs are from the animal shelter BARK that I volunteer at a lot back home. My most recent dog is my English bulldog, Jaxx. My dad bought me him after my old bulldog Ronin passed away.  Have a cat, Harley, which I’ve had since I was born. He’s my baby and I miss him very much. I'm super close with my family and absolutely love hanging out with them, but living in Texas meant I could rarely see them. Most of my family lives in Florida and Boston so seeing them always involves traveling. My best friend is definitely my mom. She's such a strong, successful business woman and I look up to her more than anything. My dad is one of the coolest people I've ever met. He's introduced me to some awesome music that I'll never forget. I usually spend my days listening to music and reading or just hanging out with my friends. Right now my major is undecided. I have a lot of interests in Forensic Science, but I also want to start an organization to rehabilitate abused animals, so my heads all over the place. I’m always listening to music; it’s something I couldn’t live without. I’m looking forward to what this year has to offer and what the future holds for me here!